LDC Watch was invited to participate in the “Ministerial Meeting on New Partnerships for Productive Capacity Building in the LDCs” held in Cotonou, Benin on 28-31 July 2014.
LDC Watch addressed Session 9 on Means of Implementation (ODA and Debt). Regarding official development assistance (ODA), we have critiqued the non-delivery of 0.15-0.20% of GNP to LDCs even when this target was committed in 2001 in the Brussels Programme of Action for the LDCs for the Decade 2001-2010 and which has now been recommitted in the current Istanbul Programme of Action for the LDCs for the Decade 2011-2020 (IPoA). This target has also been reaffirmed by the Rio+20 The Future We Want outcome document. Additionally, we demanded a review of this target in 2015 as called upon by the IPoA, to increase ODA to LDCs! Regarding debt burden and the debt trap, we demanded Total and Unconditional Cancellation of LDC Debt in line with our campaign with our global network allies, especially Jubilee South – Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development. We also demanded Sovereign, Democratic and Responsible Financing which is another of our position through the South-North platform.
A key outcome of our advocacy on LDC debt cancellation is reflected in the final outcome document: Paragraph 24 on debt relief states “There is a need to undertake effective measures, in particular through full cancellation of multilateral and bilateral debts owed by all LDCs to creditors, both public and private”. Paragraph 18 also calls upon development partners to fulfill the ODA target at the earliest as well as review ODA commitments.
Benin hosted the meeting as the global Chair of the LDC Group in collaboration with the UN LDC office (OHRLLS) and the UN system.
(File) South-North Platform Position – 430 kB (File Size)
